Pharma Investment Roundup – 25-Feb-2022

Moderna and Thermo Fisher sign up to long-term strategic partnership

24 Feb 2022

mRNA vaccine firm, Moderna, announced plans to embark on a long-term partnership with scientific manufacturer Thermo Fisher to support its future development pipeline. This will include scaling up the manufacturing capabilities for the production of Moderna’s Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine, as well as other investigational products that are being pursued by the company. The move highlights the growing footprint of Moderna – which has transformed itself from a research-stage mRNA developer to a leading company for the development of mRNA vaccines and therapeutics, as well as lipid nanoparticle formulations. Michel Lagarde, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Thermo Fisher, expressed high hopes for the future of the collaboration in a forward-looking statement:

“Moderna’s innovation in mRNA technology has been pivotal in the global response to the pandemic and we are proud and privileged to support Moderna over the last decade. In expanding our strategic partnership, Moderna will further leverage our scale and depth of capabilities to continue to transform its mRNA platform and bring new breakthrough medicines to patients around the world.”

GlaxoSmithKline to spin off consumer health division, Haleon

22 Feb 2022

GlaxoSmithKline has finally made public its plans to spin off its consumer healthcare division, after multiple offers for its acquisition by third parties failed to progress – including one by Unilever. The new company will be called Haleon, and will possess familiar brands in GSK’s portfolio – such as Panadol, Centrum and Sensodyne. The split is expected to be finalized in 2022, and is projected to produce over $13bn in sales worldwide per annum. The new name was decided as a connection between the brand and everyday health. The move to demerge the pharma and consumer healthcare divisions of the company is motivated by a desire to boost future growth while also refocusing the pharmaceutical efforts of GSK, unburdened by the more retail-oriented business of Haleon. GSK CEO, Emma Walmsley, shared similar sentiments, expecting significant value returns for shareholders from the split:

“Haleon brings to life years of hard work by many outstanding people to build this new company purely dedicated to everyday health. Haleon has enormous potential to improve health and wellbeing across the world with strong prospects for growth, and through listing will unlock significant value for GSK shareholders.”

Takeda to collaborate with Code for rare disease breakthroughs

22 Feb 2022

Code Biotherapeutics set forth plans to work with Takeda on the development of gene therapies for rare diseases, combining the two companies’ unique expertise areas. The collaboration will leverage Code’s proprietary 3DNA platform for the non-viral genetic delivery of the therapeutics, which will target a liver disease as well as multiple central nervous system programs. As part of the move, Code will receive multiple million-dollar upfront or short-term payments, with the potential to receive up to $2bn, should the milestones for all four options be reached. Takeda will retain the responsibility for commercialization and subsequent development for any candidate programs it exercises its option for. Madhu Natarajan, Head of the Rare Diseases Drug Discovery Unit at Takeda, expressed enthusiasm regarding Code’s own technologies and their future significance:

 “Code Bio’s 3DNA platform will allow us to build upon the foundation we have established through our internal capabilities and external partnerships and will hopefully enable us to develop re-dosable and durable gene therapies that will be superior to current approaches.”

LabCorp to acquire Personal Genome Diagnostics

21 Feb 2022

Leading life sciences firm, LabCorp, announced the completion of their deal to purchase Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx) earlier this week. PGDx specializes in next-generation sequencing (NGS) to power its cancer genomics platform, as well as advance their own liquid biopsy and tissue-based products. The move is expected to advance LabCorp’s own capabilities in the oncology space – while also improving patient outcomes and increasing accessibility for these precision-driven solutions. As demand for non-invasive tumor profiling and diagnostics is only expected to grow, progress in increasing the availability of the techniques will be pivotal in improving patient outcomes. The move expands LabCorp’s own portfolio of tests for tumors – which includes OmniSEQ Insight for solid tumors, IntelliGEN Myeloid for myeloid malignancies, VistaSeq for the testing of hereditary cancer, and others. 

Janssen embarks on high-value venture with RNA startup Remix

17 Feb 2022

Remix Therapeutics, a firm focusing on small molecule treatments, has made public its plans to collaborate with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV to discover and develop small molecule modulators of RNA processing. The venture will seek to leverage Remix’s REMaster drug discovery platform, which identifies patterns in RNA processing in the cell to suppress or manipulate gene expression. The move will come with a $45m upfront payment for Remix, in addition to royalties and milestone payments – with the possibility of total earnings in excess of $1bn. In return, Janssen will retain exclusive rights to three specific targets for immunological and oncological applications. CEO of Remix Therapeutics, Peter Smith, highlighted his hopes for his company’s proprietary platform:

“Janssen is an ideal strategic partner for our REMaster platform. This collaboration further validates the therapeutic potential of our proprietary REMaster drug discovery platform and provides additional resources to translate our cutting-edge science into new medicines.” 

Unlearn signs up to high-powered partnership with Merck KGaA for digital twin technologies

16 Feb 2022

Unlearn, an AI firm focusing on the development of digital twin technologies for clinical trials, has announced plans to work with Merck KGaA for the acceleration of late-stage clinical trial projects. Unlearn focuses on the development of its own Twintelligent RCT digital platform, which it expects to reduce the number of patients needed for the trials – while eliminating biases and maintaining the randomized nature of the studies. Merck seeks to harness this technology to advance the regulatory progress of its immunological pipeline candidates, although there is potential to expand the collaboration to other therapeutic fields as well. Charles Fisher, founder and CEO of Unlearn, expressed hope for the future potential of Unlearn’s technologies in a forward-looking statement:

“We are very pleased to establish this collaboration with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and to be working with its world-class team who shares our vision for how AI and other innovative technologies can expand access to new medicines. Our solution has successfully proven that it can reduce the size of control arms by 30% or more and generate reliable clinical evidence in a fraction of the time.”

Eli Lilly embarks on ADC partnership with ImmunoGen

15 Feb 2022

Immunogen has set forth plans for a collaboration with Eli Lilly to pursue the development of multiple antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) treatment programs. The transaction will see Immunogen license their proprietary camptothecin technology for the development of multiple targets chosen by Eli Lilly. Camptothecin is a Type I Topoisomerase inhibitor, with proven anti-cancer activity; Immunogen’s ADC technology aims to increase therapeutic windows while lowering toxicities. The move will see Immunogen receive $13m upfront for initial targets, with $32.5m also possible as upfront payments for additional targets. Immunogen also has the potential to earn up to $1.7bn with royalty and milestone payments – with Eli Lilly remaining responsible for the final development and commercialization of all successful programs. 

HOOKIPA and Gilead to adjust their HIV collaboration

15 Feb 2022

HOOKIPA Pharma announced plans to reorient and reinforce their partnership with established HIV heavyweight, Gilead earlier this month. The new collaboration will see the two companies work together to exploit HOOKIPA’s proprietary arenavirus immunotherapy platform for a putative curative treatment for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. With the amended agreement, HOOKIPA maintains responsibility for the program until the Phase 1b trial stage; Gilead will advance further development efforts. An existing agreement for a Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) treatment between the two parties remains unchanged. As part of the amended agreement, HOOKIPA will receive an additional upfront payment of $15m as well as a $5m equity investment by Gilead – with up to $30m equity financing made available to HOOKIPA until the end of 2023. The renewed agreement demonstrates the high hopes for breakthrough therapies based on HOOKIPA’s novel platform – with the HBV treatment candidate resulting from the original agreement expected to enter the IND stage this year.